


The Legacy

by cruisedirector



Category: Man of Steel (2013)
Genre: Angst, Canon - Movie, Canonical Character Death, Childhood Friends, Complicated Relationships, Drabble, Drabble Collection, I Haven't Read the Comics, M/M, Unrequited Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-03
Updated: 2014-01-08
Packaged: 2017-12-25 13:15:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 500
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/953533
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cruisedirector/pseuds/cruisedirector
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>They were bred to different roles.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Distance

**Author's Note:**

> So apparently this may hatch new drabbles now that the DVD is out.

As boys, they looked to the stars together, and if Dru-Zod dreamed of conquests while Jor-El dreamed of discoveries, they shared pleasure in ambition. Later they shared pleasure learning to train war-kites, to harvest energy, to harness their own strengths. Though Dru-Zod was destined for strategy and Jor-El for science, they were raised as leaders of the finest houses.

If that meant something different to Dru-Zod than Jor-El, it still made them equals. Only later did Jor-El understand that Zod had been bred to study him for weakness. The pleasure he called love, Dru-Zod called distraction. 

So divided, they fell.


	2. Reversion

"Watch," Jor told him as the cells began to divide, though Dru wrinkled his nose at the experiment. Of course, non-engineered reproduction was possible, but how could a scientific mind like Jor's find anything appealing about letting biology run wild, ignoring centuries of careful modification and improvement?

It was the same with pleasure. They were bred to the sophisticated delights of physical and mental accomplishment; they were not meant to share the animal urges of their ancestors. Yet Jor celebrated the feeling of soaring on war-kites, eating too much, resting on soft blankets. Not altogether surprisingly, he craved Dru's touch.


	3. Blind

Whenever he closed his own eyes, Zod saw those of Jor. Usually they disappeared the moment he let his lids open, but sometimes they lingered, sad and reproachful, as Zod touched machinery and studied plans that had been Jor's work.

Upon finding the boy, Zod did not know whether to be relieved or disappointed that Kal had Lara's dark hair and elongated face. He had resented Lara and her corrupting influence on Jor. No sentiment would prevent him from killing her son.

Yet the eyes were Jor's, and Zod knew it would take strength to shut them out once more.


	4. Epithet

There was no scientific name for the heat below his belly. Lara had told Jor that in ancient literature, there were judgmental as well as rhapsodic words for it, but none of the clinical terms he could find in old textbooks explained the delightful anticipation that built alongside the physical urge, the explosion of joy that accompanied the release.

Jor did not tell Lara about the latter because at that moment, it wasn't her name that threatened to burst from his lips. Nor could he tell the man to whom he longed to cry out. Dru would call it corruption.


	5. Decline

He lied to Kal-El, for in the phantom zone of dreams, Zod stayed his hand.

Eliminating Jor had served no purpose, since Zod arrived too late to stop the launch. If Jor alone had known the pod's destination, Lara could not have told Zod where to find the Codex even if Zod had not been captured.

He had been a fool, and worse, a heretic, governed not by training but passion.

Truly not a day went by when Jor's death didn't haunt Zod. Though sworn to defend Krypton, he had failed in his duty because Jor had broken his heart.


End file.
